Care2Share Project ProposalCS160, Fall 2005 Care2Share Project ProposalCare2Share Project ProposalGroup Members: Peng Xu, Rita Zhang, Lan Chen, Seva Safris, Nelson Wang, Albert Chi1) What general services does the application you are working on provide?The application is a tool that facilitates sharing between friends. It provides four main services that catalog and track a user’s belongings (items) that he or she wishes to share with friends. With this application, a user can: 1) establish and modify an online community of friends to share items with; 2) catalog the items that he or she is willing to share; 3) checkout items to friends and track the items afterwards; 4) search the inventories of other friends.2) If you are addressing problems in an existing application, describe the system and what problems exist with this system.NA3) What general approach can be adopted to provide the services of the application?To provide the proposed services, this application (Care2Share) will be web based. Any platform that supports web-browser interaction is suitable for the application’s interface. Specifically, Care2Share will provide a text and image -based user interface navigable with keyboard and pointer-device input.Services such as establishing user networks and creating a catalog of items necessitate a remote location for the storage of persistent data. To maintain persistent user data, the application will have a back-end database that is linked to the web interface layer throughan intermediate application-logic layer. This identifies a typical three-tier application solution of the interface, application, and data-storage tiers.1CS160, Fall 2005 Care2Share Project Proposal4) What applications like it already exist? How do these applications relate to the application youare planning to build?There are several existing applications that in part provide the services intended by the proposed application, Care2Share. For instance, the online friend community functionality exists in applications such as friendster.com and facebook.com. These web-based applications primarily allow people to establish an online community of friends, but do not support the aforementioned services 2), 3), and 4).The service of sharing content through an online interface is currently available in applications such as Apple’s iTunes. The iTunes application allows people to catalog, search, and share music via the internet. While providing a channel for sharing music, iTunes does not provide an interface for sharing tangible physical items.The proposed checkout system is analogous to the traditional library checkout system. In a library people are able to check out reading material that they are interested in. The checkout system also provides the library with an ability to track material that has been checked out by its members. The library checkout system, however, is limited to track library books only, while the proposed application handles tracking for a variety of items. Each of these existing applications provides services that will to some degree be integrated in the proposed application.5) What makes the interface design you plan to create interesting?Care2Share is unique because it combines the services of several existing applications to solve a completely different problem. People would like to be able to track their borrowed belongings, and perhaps to see if their friends have something they want to borrow.2CS160, Fall 2005 Care2Share Project ProposalThis common problem can been solved with the Care2Share solution. By providing the service of an organized system for cataloging and sharing of one’s items, a user will be able to find and share items with less inhibition and reservation.This application provides a new way of thinking about the simple task of sharing items with friends. The direct intention of the application is to systematize the process of lending items to friends. By cataloging and tracking a user’s items, a higher level of organization is imposed, and fewer items will be lost. Indirectly, however, the applicationwill impose the social effect of bringing people together to exchange items, communicate, mingle, and whatnot.6) Who will be using the services?The expected user demographic for this application identifies a man or a woman, betweenthe ages of 17 and 40, whose lifestyle necessitates a computer. Specific qualities such as having friends, wanting to borrow items from friends, or owning items that one would be willing to share are also important but are implied. Since this demographic is extremely broad, the focus will be on a subset: the college student.A college student is a good persona because there is a need and a desire to share things with fellow classmates. From movies, to music, to textbooks and other school material, the college student is a prime persona for Care2Share.Persona...We identify a male sophomore student named John, who also works part-time at the localretail store. John is from New York City, and is into the fashions of the current times. Trendy and cultured are the two words that his friends would use to describe him. This is the beginning of John’s second year at college, and he knows that he will need books for his classes. At this time, John feels no need to buy new books for an unreasonable price ata bookstore. He has in fact just joined an online community of friends who are willing to share their belongings with each other and has shared some movies with them already. 3CS160, Fall 2005 Care2Share Project ProposalWith no delay, John finds the books that he needs on the cataloged inventories of his friends and contacts the owners. Sally and Bill are John’s friends who live down the streetand have no hesitation lending their books to John because they are able to track their books through Care2Share. And finally, John is happy because he got his books, and Sally and Bill are happy because they feel good helping out a friend.7) Who have volunteered to be test subjects?1. Senior year non-engineering student who is not familiar with friendster, facebook, or iTunes.2. Senior year software engineering student who is familiar with but does not use friendster, facebook, or iTunes.3. Senior year non-engineering student who is familiar with but does not use friendster, facebook, or iTunes.4. Senior year student in electrical engineering who is familiar with but does not use friendster, facebook, or iTunes.5. Junior year engineering student
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